A Game of Chess: OneShot scene novelization
by Draconos13
Summary: What could be going on in Silver and Nico's minds while they play a game of chess? This is my take on that question, in the form of a one-shot writing. This references an in-game cutscene, so there will be spoilers for part of the game's story.


**Hello there! This is a one-shot writing of the cutscene in the game "OneShot" where the characters Nico and Silver play a game of chess. Since you don't actually _see_ the game being played, I figured I would try and write it out.**

 **Now, "OneShot" belongs to its original producers and creators, as do the characters mentioned here. I own none of it for myself.**

 **Also, a [SPOILER WARNING] here for people who have not played the game, as there are elements of the game's story mentioned here.**

 **Onward!**

* * *

"Before I go… is there anything I can do in return?"

Silver pauses at the timid question. She looks down at its timid speaker, a young boy named Nico who stands up to her stomach. His dark blue hair and tanned skin carry a similar shadow to his brown overcoat and blue scarf, the overcoat's sleeves longer than his arms. His brown hat has cat-like ears on the sides, which adds to Silver's claim that Niko is more like a cat than a human. Considering Silver is not a person herself, she has no proof to deny Nico's protests that he is, in fact, a human being.

The biggest thing about Niko, the thing that caught Silver's attention when she first saw him and is his most cat-like trait, are his eyes. The pupils are black slits, the irises glowing a bright, warm yellow; the same yellow of the Sun he cradles in his unseen hands. The Sun that once lit the world. Head Engineer that she is, a part of Silver does not entirely accept what she is seeing.

How could this child, who must use both hands to hold that sacred lightbulb off the ground, be the "Messiah" destined to save the world?

Prophetbot had spoken of the Messiah's arrival. It was all that one-eyed machine could do, all that he was programmed to do. The few words Silver had squeezed out of him in half-baked conversation before now told her that much. They had not told her the Messiah would be a young boy. She had expected someone taller, but no one gets exactly what they expect.

"Actually…" Silver's synthesized female tone pauses as she brushes a few strands of her red hair away from her face. She looks to a corner of her dark home, what little light in these four walls coming from jars of hastily-collected phosphor-shrimp. The Sun gives some extra glow, but not enough to drive back the encroaching decay and fading colors. It's been too long since she tried cleaning up around here.

The corner she stares at has two glass windows looking out to the evacuated mining chasms. A small table with two chairs rests near the window. It's what's on the table that gets Silver's focus.

"Do you… know how to play chess?"

"Yeah!" Nico brightens up a bit as he looks at the chessboard, familiar with it from when he first entered Silver's home. "Well, sort of…" The two look back at each other, the Sun's radiance bouncing off of Silver's purple robes and polished skin. "I've played it with some older kids before!"

Kids. Another sign of Nico's simple mindset. He is a child who, according to Prophetbot, woke up in a "strange house". Whatever _that_ means. Silver never fully accepted that cyclopean wanderer. It had not been tamed, like her. There hadn't been any time.

Silver returns her attention to the current situation. "Then, will you play a game with me?"

Nico looks away with a doubting expression. "I mean, I don't know the rules very well…" That doubt quickly fades away as he adds, "But I guess it's the least I could do!"

Once again, Nico's eyes attract Silver's attention. Maybe it's because the Sun is making them even brighter, like two stars in the sky. Maybe it's the innocence behind those eyes, the childish glee that adult humans seem to lose when they grow older. Maybe those eyes are a symbol of hope, however small and frail, that has not yet been consumed by despair.

Silver does not know the answer. This upsets her. A game of chess should help calm her down.

* * *

The Sun glows from beneath the table as a planet's core from beneath the crust and mantle. Nico and Silver sit in simple metal chairs on either side of the well-used chessboard. Nico's eyes carry a darker yellow shimmer now that the Sun is not so close to his face. A bit more power and they could be substitutes for headlights to guide Nico's way forward.

Nico takes a moment to see the board as Silver arranges her forces. The boy moves to position his pieces once he sees her waiting. Through coincidental chance, Silver never sees his hands or fingers from beneath his coat sleeves. He doesn't knock over any pieces as his hands shift from point to point, a feat of dexterity that almost causes Silver to raise an eyebrow. Nico gives Silver an apologetic smile when finished; Silver just nods back as the game begins.

Silver's black pieces advance on the board like water boring through rocks. Slow, steady, unyielding. Each move planned out to gain maximum efficiency over time, like a machine would do. Though no other robots in the Barren know how to play chess, Silver feels they would favor this mechanical approach. Silver's king observes from his obsidian throne, silent and calculating. The darkness around and inside him does not affect his tactical genius. Silver can relate to that.

Nico's white pieces hang together in a fragile unity. There are several weak holes in his lineup, evidence of a novice player. The pawns are too eager to cross the unseen border, the bishops trying to corral them. One knight has leapt into the fray with reckless abandon, safety apparently not a worry to its mind. Nico's queen hangs beside her husband; he looks ready to trade positions with the nearest rook after the initial engagement is over. Nico himself looks over the board with expressions of happiness, confidence, and worry.

"You're really good at this!" Nico's words come with an amazed stare at Silver's positioning. A few of the more aggressive white pawns have been defeated by this point, but Silver does not press the attack.

"Thank you," she casually responds with no sense of pride. "It was built into my code."

"Ah." Nico takes a moment to think that over before he moves his forward knight to a better position. Silver puts the fact he did not realize that fact about Silver earlier under his childish ignorance.

"So…" Nico looks up from the board at his opponent. "What's it like? Being a robot and all…"

Silver says nothing.

"I've talked to other robots," Nico explains, "and they all say something about programming and code and stuff." He raises a coat sleeve at her, probably pointing a finger at her. "Even you did, just now! It's a little hard to understand sometimes." He lowers his hand back down after that, careful not to knock over any pieces with the sleeve.

"I know." Silver advances a pawn forward, setting up an attack on the left flank. "Most of the robots here are not tamed."

"Tamed?"

"Watch out." A sharp _click_ signals Silver's pawn striking into enemy territory. It contacts a pointed piece out of position, the result of Silver's planning.

Nico's eyes narrow. "There goes my bishop…"

Nico manages to avenge his fallen bishop with two of Silver's pieces in quick succession. Silver capitalizes on the vengeful attack by surrounding the perpetrators before destroying them.

"Taming… is complicated." Silver moves a bishop back from that wild knight from earlier, her fingers lingering a bit on the piece. She shifts her plans two moves forward.

"Oh?" Nico blinks twice as he tries to secure the space around his forward knight. "How complicated, exactly?"

Silver's hands move in place of her lips, her eyes locked on the board as she knocks another enemy piece out of the fight.

Nico sighs in disappointment. "There goes my other bishop…"

Silver suspects Nico is also disappointed that he is not getting his answers when he wants them. He is curious, which makes sense, but he is not patient. Someone with power must be patient with the complaints and mistakes of underlings. Silver knows how to deal with the other robot's complaints. Human emotions are…

Silver stops thinking about that before dark memories of her early life rise to the surface. That time is done with. This world may very well be the next thing to fall.

Eight more turns go by, the battle becoming more chaotic as both sides enter a bloody melee. Silver's calculations are put to the test against Niko's wild charges and retreats. To his credit, Nico keeps his most powerful pieces protected longer than Silver first expected.

"I can't really explain what tamed robots are," Silver finally answers as she moves a rook back from possible assault, "but I'm one of them. All the other tamed robots have been moved to other regions. Exactly where, I don't know."

"Oh?" Nico's focus wavers between the game and Silver's explanations. A sign of distraction, unable to maintain focus on the current goal. Does Nico even understand the magnitude of what he was chosen to do?

"…" Silver lets out a slow sigh as she adjusts her king behind a rearguard of pawns. Nico studies the board with a covered hand to his chin, and then strikes a pawn down with that same reckless knight. Silver instantly advances her newly-positioned rook forward to take the knight out. The horse and rider crumple before the assault.

Nico actually mewls at his mistake. "There goes my little horse…"

"Knight." Silver's coding identifies the chess pieces by their name, not terms like "little horse".

"Right…" Nico lowers his head slightly in momentary thought. He then, once again, turns his eyes away from the board to ask, "Oh! Have you ever been to any other regions? I heard that there's two more."

"In the past, yes. I still have the data, the coordinates, the memories…" Silver pauses to eliminate one of Nico's rooks with the sharpened lance of her knight's rider. "… I don't know how much of that still holds true."

Nico reaches for his queen just before Silver adds, "The world may be a very different place now."

His hand pauses in midair, even now shrouded beneath that brown sleeve. "Because the Sun is gone?"

"No." Silver's eyes narrow at Nico's forgetfulness, adding that to the list of qualities a "Messiah" probably should not have. "I said this already, didn't I? The Sun probably won't save the world."

Nico's eyes widen. Silver clearly sees the surprise and confusion inside him. The Barren's workers acted the same way when the Sun first went out. They were afraid, not knowing what to do at that literal dark omen. So, they fled and left those not "tamed" to continue obsolete jobs and tasks.

"The decaying started back before the Sun went out." Silver's words echo very slightly against the hut's walls and go against the quiet hum of a backup power unit at the opposite corner. "The Sun's sudden death was just the tipping point, and things went south really fast after that."

"Oh…" Nico slumps in his chair, the brim of his hat nearly covering his eyes. The Sun's glow does not provide any comfort. Silver waits with programmed patience for Nico to sit back up and resume the game.

Twelve more turns go by, both players losing pieces more rapidly. Nico still suffers more casualties, including his queen from what Silver judges a miscalculated play, but he doesn't give his ground easily. A passionate – or maybe determined? – gleam shines in his eyes as he takes a fighting retreat to his left corner of the board. Silver can metaphorically see the gears turning inside the boy's brain, figuring things out as best he can. Despite this, Nico clearly looks troubled by facts other than the game's current state.

Silver finds that good. It shows Nico is learning. A child is supposed to learn so they can be better adults when their time comes. Silver remembers her creator talking about that with other humans when Silver was first made. It's a human reason, but a "tamed" robot like Silver can understand those things.

Nico's hand slowly moves his remaining knight back over a pawn, his forces standing together against Silver's encroaching tide. He looks up to Silver once again before he makes his move, his eyes shimmering with what look like tears.

"Then… there's nothing I can do?"

"Check."

"W-what!" Nico's jaw drops as he sees Silver's queen on _his_ side of the board. This one move punches through Nico's barrier, the rest of the pawns unable to capture her when she's right beside them. Any other piece Nico uses to take out the queen would be under threat by Silver's oncoming knight, the second blow of Silver's hammer.

"When did your queen get there…" Nico stares at the clear line Silver's queen has to his most vital piece. He reaches for a nearby piece, something to keep the queen occupied, and then reconsiders with another look at the board. He then takes the queen out with his remaining knight. Silver takes out the knight in turn.

"The only thing you can do is complete your pilgrimage." Nico pauses in his turn to look at Silver once more. "In a way, you are only supposed to be a second chance for the people. Just like how the Barrens was only supposed to be a second chance for me." Silver lets out another slow breath as she gazes into Nico's unusual eyes. "There's no guarantee that things will work out."

"But…" Nico lets his question hang. The tension in the room is nearly palpable, not that Silver cares about tension. That is a human emotion she does not like to feel, but one she has seen too much of since the decay began. The fact she knows how the human miners here felt is more like a curse than a gift.

Silver's fingers twitch as she moves her hand over the board. Nico notices, and frowns in turn at the motion. Silver holds her arm still until the sensations go away. She feels Nico's eyes on her face, but does not look back at him. That would reveal too much to him. He doesn't need to know everything about her, she's just one figure among thousands slowly embracing annihilation.

Silver advances her knight up. Nico threatens with his last rook, only for Silver's rook to slam that enemy into the ground. Nico readjusts his king, but Silver's knight leaps over the last few pawns that separate the monarch from death. Nico charges with his queen in a last-ditch effort to protect himself. Silver charges her rook in from the side and eliminates the queen. Nico's king is now placed between the rook and the knight at the board's far corner, two opposing elements working in tandem to wipe out the last of Nico's resistance.

The outcome is all too clear.

"Checkmate."

* * *

"…" Nico slumps in his seat again before slowly raising one hand to tip his king over. Silver feels a twinge of surprise at this gesture. Her databanks say this act is a way to accept defeat in an honorable manner. Did these "older kids" Nico learned the game with teach him this? Perhaps he saw these other players do it when their games ended?

She has so many more questions to ask this "Messiah". She can't figure out why.

"Alright, guess I've kept you long enough…" Silver's body slowly picks up the remaining pieces and reorganizes them, along with their defeated comrades, into their starting places. Nico watches her hands without a word. Soon enough, the battlefield is reset for the next game.

"Thank you for listening." Silver looks at Nico's face for a second, and then studies the darkened sky outside the nearby windows. "I hope you get home safely."

"Ah, thank you also!" Silver looks back to Nico in time to see a small smile on his face. He gets down from his seat to pick up the Sun once again. His smile grows as he wipes a bit of dust off the object's surface with a coat sleeve. The bulb's light shines back to give Nico's face that same innocent, pure radiance.

For a second, the golden light also reflects off a small amber necklace hanging below Nico's scarf – Silver's necklace. She gave it to her before their game; the "Messiah" needs it more than she needs a keepsake from her creator. In a practical sense, Nico also needs it for the Rowbot by the docks to bring Nico to the Glen, which is where the amber came from.

Silver doesn't want to think about the metaphorical reasons why she gave probably her most precious item away. Instead, she moves to her small hut's door to see Nico out. She opens the door for him, and he smiles in return. He then steps out into the cold, dark, near-lifeless wastes of the Barrens. The Sun's light lets Silver watch from her doorstep. She doesn't look away from the two people walking into the darkness.

Silver blinks. Confusion rises to the surface of her thoughts. Her memory brings back whispers of Silver's prior conversations with Nico. A strange journal with a black clover insignia. The words of Prophetbot. Nico mentioning this world's deity as a "friend". Then, something much more important.

Nico had used "we" rather than "I". Plural rather than single. Does that mean…?

Silver looks at Nico again. It's just him now, a wavy speck of light from the Sun identifying his presence. Some copy of human curiosity draws Silver's eyes skyward. A blackened sky greets her, no stars to speak of in the abyss. It's just an echo of the darkened mines below, long since abandoned of people and light. When Silver looks back down, Nico and the Sun are gone to their supposed destiny.

* * *

 **Alright, that's it. Any reviews, comments, constructive criticism and other feedback you all can give would be appreciated. I also hope you enjoyed reading it.**

 **Draconos is taking off!**


End file.
